This 2021 collection of “Country Profiles for Early Childhood Development” has been developed by UNICEF in collaboration with Countdown to 2030 Women’s, Children’s and Adolescent’s Health. The profiles are an attempt to compile, in one place, the available data for country and cross-country monitoring and to provide a baseline against which progress can be monitored.Read More →
The city government of Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia, is taking a multisectoral, holistic approach to ensuring all children get the best start in life. This program seeks to provide universal access to comprehensive ECD services for all children in the city and to reach vulnerable children in 330,000 low-income households with intensified ECD services by 2026.Read More →
This Progress Report looks back on the first five years since the launch of the Nurturing Care Framework. It reflects on achievements from 2018 to 2023, drawing attention to areas where there has been significant change, as seen primarily through key informants’ perspectives.Read More →
This guidance aims to support USAID missions and operating units in understanding how they can operationalize the Global Child Thrive Act through planning, implementing, and monitoring and evaluating integrated and inclusive approaches to improve early childhood development.Read More →
This Thematic Brief shows how responsive feeding relies on and supports the integration of all five components of nurturing care into the feeding process. It explains what is meant by responsive feeding and how to create the enabling environments for caregivers to responsively feed their young children.Read More →
Home-based records have a long history, initially used to record proof of smallpox vaccinations in the mid-1800s. Today, more than 163 countries use a form of home-based record, such as antenatal notes, vaccination-only cards, child health booklets or integrated maternal and child health handbooks. This publication recommends home-based records to improve care-seeking behaviours, men’s involvement and support in the household, maternal and child home care practices, infant and child feeding and communication between health workers and women, parents and caregivers. Read More →
These guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations on parenting interventions for parents and caregivers of children aged 0-17 years that are designed to reduce child maltreatment and harsh parenting, enhance the parent-child relationship, and prevent poor parent mental health and child emotional and behavioural problems.Read More →
This report summarizes the findings of a multicountry study examining the impact of formula milk marketing on infant feeding decisions and practices, which was commissioned by WHO and UNICEF. The research study – the largest of its kind to date – draws on the experiences of over 8500 women and more than 300 health professionals across eight countries (Bangladesh, China, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam). It exposes the aggressive marketing practices used by the formula milk industry, highlights the impacts on women and families, and outlines opportunities for action.Read More →
This advocacy brief makes the case that investing in early childhood development is a climate-change friendly investment. It presents the problem, the case for making investment, suggested actions, and efforts underway. Read More →
The authors provide a set of 10 theory-embedded action questions that service providers can reflect on and apply during their routine interactions with families and young children. These questions pertain to four layers outlined in the Nurturing care framework.Read More →
Cette publication explique trois points clés du document de travail 15 : « Connecter le cerveau au reste du corps ».Read More →
This brief distills three key points from the Harvard Center for the Developing Child’s Working Paper 15: Connecting the Brain to the Rest of the Body.Read More →
The Nurturing Care Practice Guide is designed for managers and service providers who are responsible for or provide health and nutrition services for young children and their caregivers at any level. It responds to requests from practitioners and country teams who have learned about the Nurturing Care Framework and wantRead More →
This framework outlines fundamental principles and recommendations to improve service delivery for vulnerable pēpi (babies/young children) in the first 1000 days.Read More →
This fourth thematic brief from MMA explains how early childhood development contributes to gender equality. They focus on how ECD services prevent gender-based violence in emergencies and how they close the gender gap in parental care.Read More →
In this thematic brief Moving Minds Alliance looks at integrating early childhood development in emergencies within nutrition sector response plans and programs. They share evidence from various contexts of the positive effects that integration of ECDIE and nutrition has on both children and their caregivers. They include some existing entry points for integration and examples of different nutrition and responsive caregiving programs.Read More →
Moving Minds Alliance dives deeper to understand our brain and how it responds to stress. They consider threats faced by young children in crisis, such as being exposed to prolonged stress and adversity, and discuss how to mitigate the impact on their brain development. They also share how the humanitarian sector can incorporate early childhood development programs in their emergency response plans and programs through the nurturing framework lens.Read More →
Following the launch of the Nurturing care framework in 2018, numerous resources have been developed to support advocacy and implementation of the Framework. This brochure introduces them, with a general background and links to the nurturing care handbook, practice guide, advocacy toolkit, thematic briefs, country profiles and more.Read More →
This brief defines early childhood development and why it is important to understand, especially in crisis contexts. It also explains the Nurturing Care Framework and how to use it to mitigate risks for young children in crisis settings and supporting them to have a healthy development. The fact sheet also provides simple recommendations on how to support early childhood development programming, financing and research in supporting young children in crisis and their caregivers.Read More →
This Thematic Brief summarizes the evidence regarding the benefits of men’s engagement on outcomes for women, children, and even men themselves. It consolidates the learnings thus far regarding designing and adapting services to engage men in providing nurturing care. Finally, it recommends practical actions for policymakers and programme designers across four enabling environments: policies, services, communities and caregivers – all illustrated with case studies. It focuses particularly on what health services can do, while also covering education, social protection and other sectors. Read More →
